FBI Assists Dominican Republic with Mysterious Deaths of Americans

USA authorities are scrambling to get to the bottom of a rash of deaths of USA tourists in the Dominican Republic, with the number of reported fatalities over the past year now rising to six.

Robert "Bob" Bell Wallace, 67, of Modesto, and who grew up in Redwood City, became sick nearly immediately after he had a scotch from the room minibar at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino resort in Punta Cana in April, his niece, Chloe Arnold, told Fox News on Sunday. Wallace died the day of the wedding, Tickenoff told the station.

The increase in the number of mysterious deaths and sudden illnesses at resorts in the Dominican Republic has drawn an unsettling amount of attention to the nation.

Holmes, 63, and Day, 49, were found on May 30 by an employee of the Bahia Principe Hotel in La Romana who went to their room after they failed to check out, according to reports.

Schaup-Werner checked into the Bahia Principe Bouganville resort in La Romana on May 25 and excitedly took pictures in the room she shared with her husband, Dan Werner.

Yvette Monique Sport, 51, of Pennsylvania, died last June at a Bahia Principe hotel after she drank a beverage from the hotel's minibar, her family told NBC10.

Wallace is the fourth American tourist reported dead in the Dominican Republic in the last two months and the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed Friday to Fox News that it is stepping in to investigate the string of mysterious deaths. The autopsy cited heart attack, respiratory failure, and a fluid accumulation in her lungs as the cause of death.

A doctor has said that the symptoms reported in the tourists who mysteriously died in the Dominican Republic are "consistent with poisoning".

The Dominican Republic's prosecutor's office said forensics experts are performing toxicological and other tests to determine the causes of death of Holmes and Day.

"We were promised within three months that we would receive a toxicology report". The 67-year-old, who owned a construction business, had reportedly taken a scotch from the room's minibar before he became nauseous.

Forty-eight Americans died in the Dominican Republic between 2016 and 2018, according to statistics available on the US Department of State website.

Since the couple was found, five other suspicious deaths in the Dominican Republic in the past year have been revealed in addition to multiple people getting violently ill.

'He started feeling very sick, he had blood in his urine and stool right afterwards'. Dominican authorities also ruled his death was due to pulmonary edema and a heart attack.

"The freaky issue of the same hotel and these things happening within days of each other and the complete unexpected nature of what happened to Miranda, we just want to understand this", McDonald told the affiliate.

"My mom and brother had been in touch with the hospital and they didn't reach out and tell us any answers until the next morning". "Only the next woman may not be so fortunate", she said.

"My 6-year-old and 3-year-old used run in the house and jump on him on the couch and he'd wrestle with them for hours on end", Tickenhoff said.